Axel: As long as people search for a product not knowing their name or a technology, not knowing its source or a solution not knowing who is a potential supplier SEO is an important part of the marketing mix...

However, this is slowly and steadily changing.

Today 60 – 80% of the so called educated purchase decision is based on recommendations by trusted individuals or groups that have no or no significant interest in the sale but helpful and experienced people using or knowing the product or service in need.

And the number of recommendation based purchases is steadily growing. I'm sure it will hit the 80 – 90% range in the next 5 to 10 years.

Now – what does that mean to SEO?

Why should a business invest in search engine optimization if most of the purchase decisions are based on recommendations?

Wouldn't it be smarter to invest into the "recommendation chain" instead in SEO?

Wouldn't it be more effective and successful to make sure people recommend a product than hoping to come up higher in the list of search results?"

Curated by Jan Gordon covering "Content Curation, Social Business and Beyond"

Gideon.Rosenblatt
You made my day! I always love reading and curating your articles this was definitely no exception. Thank you for always raising the bar and making us pay attention to what's really important.

Yes Jan... I don't know exactly what you are referring to, but this the only sure thing we have today: this is time of fast and continuous change... so I am certainly enjoying the ride.

On another note: I would humbly suggest to consider posting shorter stories, especially when you are also pointing to the original, as what I am looking for from you, is not a rehash of what's in the article - outside of a 1-3 para excerpt - but the reasons why you are recommending it. You are already doing both, but it is overwhelming for me. Too much stuff, and I haven't even seen the original yet.

I would also gently mute some of the visual noise you create by heavily formatting with asterisks, bolds and big font sizes. In my case that doesn't help much. It actually hinders my ability to rapidly scan and check whether you have something good there.

I suggest to limit greatly the formatting options you use and to highlight only what is really relevant, because when too many things are highlighted, bolded, asterisked, none has any more an effect on me. It's like a crowd screaming: who do you help? :-)

To capture leads, marketers must provide consumers content they crave. Ask yourself these four questions to spark those fresh ideas.

donhornsby's insight:

Asking great questions can help you create great content. And if your content is good enough, prospects will have no problem filling out your lead gen form to gain access. That means you’ll increase your chances of capturing qualified leads.

If Periscope and Meerkat represent our current peak, what comes next? What new forms of content will we see social media sites embrace, and how will it impact user communication?

donhornsby's insight:

(From the article): While the mechanisms have evolved, today’s social media giants still focus on the power of stories. The stories have simply become richer, more complex, “told” through multiple forms of media. What’s interesting to see is that each evolution of social media technology aims to bring us back to that earliest human social experience – seeing the person in front of you telling, living, creating their unique story in the moment.

(From the article) Pinterest marketing is one of the most (if not the most) effective way to get your business noticed and drive traffic to your business or blog. However, it does not need to be all-consuming.

Spend a little time each day to pin, schedule and comment on the platform, as well as small pockets of time for research and image creation each week. You’ll be amazed what a little time and consistent effort can do to improve your results on Pinterest.

Short-term serialization of content offers advantages to both brand and audience. Create your own series with this how-to guide.

donhornsby's insight:

(From the article): Are you ready to schedule a short series to help you become a more consistent blogger while turning your big ideas into equity projects like e-books, white papers, and podcasts? Have you ever tried a short series approach to blogging? What are the key benefits the short series offers you? Are there any concerns or questions holding you back?

What’s interesting is that it’s these same elements of storytelling that capture and enrapture audiences of companies with which I work today.

donhornsby's insight:

At it's essence, Social Media is really the art of storytelling. This is a great article that gives the structure of what makes a great story.

(From the article): Understanding how storytelling can payoff can be a challenge. But if I’ve learned anything from those who’ve successfully gone before me, whether it’s my family lineage or marketers who I greatly respect, it’s that it takes effort, attention and dedication to tell a remarkable story.

If I’m no expert at Dead trivia, I’m at least a life-long sucker for iconic brands, and the Dead fits squarely into that category (they also happen to have produced a pretty impressive string of great music that you can actually enjoy as a sentient adult). There’s more than nostalgia at work here (not that there’s anything wrong with that), as the Dead provide a pretty good set of lessons for would-be brand builders of today and tomorrow:

donhornsby's insight:

It will pay to be generous in what you offer to your followers and customers.

(From the article): If I’m no expert at Dead trivia, I’m at least a life-long sucker for iconic brands, and the Dead fits squarely into that category (they also happen to have produced a pretty impressive string of great music that you can actually enjoy as a sentient adult). There’s more than nostalgia at work here (not that there’s anything wrong with that), as the Dead provide a pretty good set of lessons for would-be brand builders of today and tomorrow:

(From the article): We often share our blog posts multiple times on social networks, for a few difference reasons. Some of the biggest benefits we get are more traffic, reaching people in different time zones and sharing our content with people who’ve followed us since we last posted it.

(From the article): Since there’s some evidence that Twitter is important, your next step is to figure out how to use the platform to achieve your goals more effectively. Some businesses are great at utilizing Twitter, but not everyone is; in fact, 81 percent of B2B marketers find online marketing moderately to extremely challenging. It takes time and focus to create a plan for how to use Twitter and then to put that plan in motion.

Of course, you need to start by investing time in a quick beginner’s tutorial that offers video, images and text to explain the platform in detail. Then you can tap into a secret world of apps that will allow you make the most of your time on Twitter.

(From the article): But without the right mentality, marketers equate scaling content marketing with taking shortcuts and producing more volume at the expense of quality. For these organizations, scale essentially means shoveling more coal into the engine of a crappy content factory. With the SEED approach, scale is about consistency, quality, experimentation and testing, and better, deeper connections to more of their audiences. If they increase volume, it’s because they’ve mastered quality output and have goals to achieve both in serving an audience and in converting them.

These four elements – something I call the SEED approach – are essential elements of great content creation.

Search engine optimization is all about getting your site to the top of the search engines for your target keywords. Several tactics are used to do this.

donhornsby's insight:

(From the article): Forget about Google for a second. Write detailed material for your readers. Give them the nitty-gritty for whatever you’re writing about. Don’t hold back. You’ll find that many of your readers will share your content with their friends. They’ll also be more likely to engage with it. This will create natural signals that make Google sit up and take notice.

A quick recap: SEO is about taking direct action to get your site ranked. CMO is about using your content to indirectly build a variety of signals that tell Google to rank your site higher. Neither strategy replaces the other. They work together, like close brothers or sisters.

Blog posts take hours to write, great images need to be found or created, and those social networks need to be managed and nurtured. It is often not done or persisted with because there is no apparent quick reward.

One way of thinking about great content marketing is that you are building an audience before you need them. Content builds credibility, trust, and followers over time. This earns you the right to then sell them something down the track.

Here are some content marketing mistakes that many amateurs new to the game are making....

(From the article): In content marketing terms, a strong story engine means coming up with a well-deined subject-niche you can credibly own, which both speaks to your business goals and appeals to your (potential) audiences.

Although this niche will be aligned with what you do – and informed by the knowledge and expertise of your people – it needs to look beyond products and services. It needs to be something you can return to again and again for new ideas and angles and stories. ‘Adrenaline’ and ‘the future of work’ are much stronger story engines or content brand promises, for instance, than ‘energy drinks’ or ‘flexible workspace’.

(From the article): Key Takeaway: Experienced marketers understand that numbers don’t tell the whole story. Countless posts have been written about showing up on the channels your ideal prospects occupy.

With Google+ still a free platform (in the sense that it’s not charging to deliver posts to earned audiences like Facebook does), it could be worthwhile for you to put some effort and time into the channel if there’s a chance your market is there.

In How to Build Powerful Alliances on Google+, marketing expert Martin Shervington explains that Google+ is not yet crowded, so there’s room for someone new. Also, experts may be there with whom an individual can make an alliance.

With so much content out there it can be hard to ensure that your brand’s message does not get lost in the noise of the Internet. Particularly if that message is being presented in the standard blog format – SEO optimised for sure, but is it engaging and different from any other content?So to help your content stand out from the numerous dry standard formatted blogs out there why not take a different approach and frame your content as a quiz, or a comic strip? Perhaps move onto Twitter and host a Q&A session? Or why not post your content into a shared space and generate discussion around it?

That’s just 12 – to find more, think about what draws your eye when you consume content. Is it sidebars, captions, colour? All will give you clues for your next content marketing project that won’t rely on a blog!

Are your videos posted online not being ranked on Google? If so, we may have the answers why.

donhornsby's insight:

When you go and do a normal web search on Google, most of the time, it will yield only web-based results, with no videos. Once in a while, a YouTube video will appear–and you will know it right away because of the thumbnail images that stand out from the typical text-based web listings.

Why is this? When it comes to video, people are doing the right things; they just aren’t doing them right! They are not correctly search engine optimized (SEO). What most people forget is that SEO does not take place after the video is complete and uploaded; it starts before way before production. In fact, SEO is the first step of production, and continues throughout the process!

Most people have this backwards, unfortunately. And it’s for this reason that their videos are not getting found. Here are some of the things that you may be doing wrong when it comes to leveraging video, and why your videos may are not being found:

Periscope has a slight edge over Meerkat in the fight for users among the two fledgling live-video-streaming applications.

donhornsby's insight:

(From the article): When broken out by age group, Periscope led among respondents 16 through 24 and 55 through 64, while the other three age groups went to Meerkat—25 through 34, 35 through 44 and 45 through 54.

(From the article): The intent of this outreach was to see if social media – in the eyes of brands – is delivering at a level that lives up to its potential. It also can illuminate for people on the agency side, what brand marketers perceive they are really getting from their social media efforts.

The Declaration of Independence that formed our nation was an end and a beginning: It was the end of oppressive British rule and the beginning of a free nation that could seek a better form of government.

(From the article): Now that we’re a few years into the social selling revolution, the results are undeniable. Social selling is better for buyers: Instead of viewing the interaction as an unwanted intrusion, 64% of B2B buyers appreciate it when a sales person contacts them with relevant information. Social selling is better for the sales profession: It allows salespeople to be seen as valued, problem-solving allies.

Social-networking sites such as Facebook can help students learn scientific literacy and other complex subjects that often receive short shrift in today's time-strapped classrooms, finds a study led by an MSU scholar.

donhornsby's insight:

There is great potential in Facebook and other social media platforms to be used in education. I have seen creative uses...

(From the article): “While any social network site can be misused,” Greenhow said, “there’s also a significant and underexplored opportunity to develop these spaces as forums for learning, healthy academic debate and career development.”

'No matter how digital marketing evolves, SEO will still be a vital part of your grand marketing strategy. If you want to increase your search engine rankings, organic traffic and conversion rate, here are 5 SEO strategies that will make Google and other search engines love you more'.

(From the article): Here are some tips on how to combine great content, conversation and relationship to form a powerful SEO campaign.

Reply comments in your blog posts or in your guest blog posts to keep the discussions alive.Reply comments and feedback on the links from your site that you shared in social media to increase engagements.Leave engaging comments on related blog posts. Use your real name and start connecting with the authors and bloggers.Join related groups and online communities to exchange ideas, learn from the members, and start making close connections. Consider making collaborative content with your connections.Reach out people (influencers and potential customers) whom you think will find your content useful.Recognize worthy people (top people in your industry) in your content or blog posts.Focus on building friendships with the people in your industry instead of focusing on building inbound links.

The pros and cons of creating different marketing approaches and social media posts for international clients

donhornsby's insight:

(From the article): Of course you should adapt!

If you want to make more money and reach international clients beyond the Queen’s former colonies, you should learn the customs of each non-native speaker to possibly attract more of their kind.

As soon as I stopped treating German clients like Americans who happened to speak German, I attracted more German-speaking clients.

So when dealing with my countrymen, I began to use a more serious tone (business in Germany is no laughing matter!), and showed more proof of my expertise through testimonials and former client work. This allowed me to build up some trust with my clients. Word of mouth traveled all the way to Austria and Switzerland and increased my German-speaking client pool.

Sharing your scoops to your social media accounts is a must to distribute your curated content. Not only will it drive traffic and leads through your content, but it will help show your expertise with your followers.

Integrating your curated content to your website or blog will allow you to increase your website visitors’ engagement, boost SEO and acquire new visitors. By redirecting your social media traffic to your website, Scoop.it will also help you generate more qualified traffic and leads from your curation work.

Distributing your curated content through a newsletter is a great way to nurture and engage your email subscribers will developing your traffic and visibility.
Creating engaging newsletters with your curated content is really easy.